SWEET Online Fundraising Blog

5 Predictions for the Nonprofit Sector in the 2010s

What would a blog post be this week without predictions?  Here are mine. 

They are based on data, conversations with Executive Directors, and buzz.

1.  Sponsorships will become even more difficult to get than they are now.  With the wealth of creative corporate social responsibility programs that are on the horizon, companies will choose more profitable ways to exercise their giving.  Handouts are going to become much less frequent so be prepared.

2.  Everyone will have an App, which means no one will have an app.  Sometime in the next couple of years one or two nonprofits will have a very successful mobile application (probably a game).  Then the mad rush will ensue.  Remember the Yellow Bracelets?  By 2012 most nonprofits will have some sort of mobile app that may or may not be downloaded by its members and ultimately will not create any significant revenue or impact for an organization.    

3.  Orgs will still have to ask for money.  This is the one and only Natural Law of this sector.  My apologies.  It's like predicting gravity.   But the point is there is nothing magical on the horizon that will produce never-ending streams of revenue.  Nothing on Facebook or anywhere else.  Orgs and their supporterswill need to keep asking.  My advice - continue to look for more efficient and scalable ways of asking. 

4.  Social Media will be a vital component of an org's outreach.  There is so much innovation going on in this area.  Nonprofits will surely benefit from more personalized and better timed communications with their donors.  It would be powerful to alert someone in your Facebook group that Nordstroms will donate 10% of their purchase to your org...when they are actually walking past or into a Nordstroms!  That's the right info at the right time.  That's so much better than the monthly e-newsletter.  And trust me there are many more creative and awesome concepts on the horizon.

5.  Direct Bulk Mail will die.  This is as much a hope as it is a prediction.  But I'm sure there are "typewriter-using, fake wood-panel on the wall" orgs that will keep this tree-killing, draconian practice alive till 2020 and then I'll predict and hope it again.

There you go.

Happy New Year!

Golden Years for Nonprofits End With the Decade

It's difficult to believe that in 2002, Blue Sky Collaborative's (www.blueskycollaborative.com) first nonprofit clients did not even have their own websites. 

But here we sit in 2009 and seemingly every org has a Facebook Page or is experimenting with Twitter.

The years from 2000 to 2009 will be remembered by many as the greatest years of the nonprofit sector.  I'm not so sure that this is great news.  Regardless, here's a recap of what we saw.

1.  Explosive growth.  Earlier in the decade the number of orgs was ballooning and the sectors' revenues were growing at 62%

2.  Fragmentation.  A side effect of the growth was the increasingly large number of orgs tackling the same problem.

3.  Donor Management Systems.  Seemingly all large nonprofit orgs implemented gargantuan CRM systems.  These systems were bulky and expensive.  The ROI of these systems is unclear but most systems are ingrained within the organizations operations so they are here to stay. 

4.  We went online.  To be sure, orgs are still trying to figure out how to use the web but most orgs have a website and some way to donate or transact online.  Online donations are continuing to grow and in 2009 so expect more growth in this area.

5.  CSR went away for a while.  The first iteration of Corporate Social Responsiblity proved to be too expensive to justify to shareholders.  Companies like Timberland and Ben and Jerry's were pioneers in CSR but their programs proved to be not sustainable.  No need to fret, however.  New movements and investment activity point to a CSR Version 2.0 that integrates marketing data, mobile applications, and causes to create a CSR that is profitable to nonprofits AND companies.  Stay tuned on this one.

6.  The sector became younger.   The internet and social media are democratizing philanthropy.  Small groups of young, connected donors are starting to have the impact of the wealthy old benefactor.  The leadership in the sector also seems to be refreshed.  Orgs also experimented with social media to attract and keep these young donors.

Taken together, it wa a revolutionary decade for the nonprofit sector.  The economic downturn at the end of the decade will probably cause some contraction and that's just part of the natural cycle.  But not all orgs are suffering.  The organizations utilizing technology to cut costs, create efficiencies, and generate revenue are still thriving.  The rest better get on board soon.  But it might be too late for them already.

Still, there's a lot to look forward to and much innovative activity happening within the sector and its vendors. 

Great Nonprofits Rates Cancer Nonprofit Organizations

In August 2009, Greatnonprofits.org realeased a list of their top rated cancer organizations.  The Winners of the ratings can be found here:  http://greatnonprofits.org/cancer

The Winners are categorized by organization size (small, medium, or large) and by geographic region.  Some of the winners include:

I'm too young for this! http://i2y.org/ - the Northeast Winner

and

The Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation http://www.pcrf-kids.org/ - the Large Nonprofit Category Winner

The entire list can be found here http://greatnonprofits.org/cancer and is worth checking out.

I'd like to add a few more cancer nonprofits that I believe are worth a look if you are looking for effective cancer nonprofits.

Gilda's Club Worldwide - www.gildasclub.org

Art beCAUSE - www.artbecause.org

Jordan Hospital Club - www.jhclub.org

Tommy Fund for Childhood Cancer - www.tommyfund.org

Cancer is a huge problem so naturally, there are many orgs devoted to tackling specific problems related to the disease and its impact.  Some focus on research while others tackle patient care and family issues.

Regardless, it is a cause that is easy to rally around and very conducive to a peer to peer or viral fundraising model.  Families and friends of cancer Patients are very willing to raise money for the cause and the people that they solicit are very willing to give. 

The point it is, cancer is very easy to rally around and lets hope, everyone's efforts will one day lead to the end of cancer.

Jordan's Polar Plunge is Back

There is a really only one good reason to take a dip in the ocean off Plymouth Beach in the middle of winter.  It is to raise money to help cancer patients. 

Jordan's Polar Plunge is a creative a-thon event where participants raise money online.  The event culminates in March when everyone takes the plunge into the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the unforgiving northeastern winter.

Over the past several years, thousands of people have  'Taken the Plunge' for the JHC Cancer Center, and have raised hundreds-of-thousands of dollars for this worthy cause.

For the second year in row, Jordan's Hospital Club has chosen SWEET for its pledge fundraising website.

Jordans' Polar Plunge is a very unique event with a rabbid group of supporters.  Even more, the money that is raised goes to a very worthy cause.  The success of this pledge event has grown over the years and the folks at Jordan Hospital Club should be proud of what they have built.  We are certainly happy that they continue to choose SWEET for their event..

Chess-athon The Sequel

California Youth Chess League is once again raising money for their organization using a SWEET Fundraising Website for Pledge Events.

I love this event because

• the organization gives kids something productive to do
• gives the kids the responsibility for keeping the organization funded
• it's super cute.

Check out the web site to see the CYCL kids in action.  http://www.chessathon.org/

The Wrong Pledge Event Website Can Actually Add to Your Event Costs

A colleague of mine in St Louis purchased a "do it yourself" website for his walkathon a few years ago.

He figured that the walkathon needed to accept donations in the online channel as well as by mail and phone.  That's sound reasoning.

He also assumed that the walkathon software would greatly reduce the time and cost of administering the event.  A drop in mail-in registrations, data entry, and mailing costs would drastically and positively effect the cost of the event for the organization.

He purchased a low budget "do it yourself" walkathon website to keep his costs down.

Great plan, right?

He was disappointed to find that the org was in fact spending more time designing their website than they had been spending on manual registrations.

The costs were actually greater for their organization.  And the result was a "lame website" (his words) that made their organization look bad.

The fact is, orgs that take on technical projects when acquiring software from low budget or open source providers are simply replacing their old manual labor costs with new ones. 

Instead of working on mailings and data entry, they are trying to figure out how to make text bold, or how to right justify an image and put a border on it.

What's the point?

If you're going to invest in a website for your walkathon, bike ride, or other pledge event invest in a product and service where the work is done for you.  This way, you can spend the time on marketing, communication, and revenue generation.  The point of the event is to raise money.  All your activities should be tailored to meet that objective.